ICN based Co-operative Edge Caching Policy for Transient IoT data

Context: Internet of Things (IoT) devices generate large amounts of data, which is frequently transient and requested by a large number of users. The Information Centric Network (ICN) is a content-centric network that differs from existing IP networks by allowing in-network caching, which improves data dissemination and content retrieval efficiency in the network. Objective: This work aims to deliver fresh IoT data to consumers while optimising network performance through cooperative edge caching. Method: A cooperative edge caching policy with a threephase architecture for gathering and serving content to consumers has been proposed. An edge cluster is formed based on Euclidean distance to enable cooperation between edge devices. Each content is assigned with a content ID, when the content lifetime exceeds the duration, it is removed from the cache. Content with a shorter lifespan is chosen to be replaced in the cache by new content. Result: The proposed caching policy was compared to random, FIFO, and single-edge caching techniques, and the results revealed that the proposed caching policy performed approximately 20% better on average for all evaluated metrics. Conclusion: Proposed ICN-based cooperative edge caching is an efficient technique to retrieve fresh content in an IoT network which improves the overall network efficiency in terms of data transmission and ensures that the cache remains current and efficient.